Welfare state policy and educational inequality: a cross-national multicohort study

Schoenholzer, Kevin; BURGER, Kaspar

doi:10.1093/esr/jcae003

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Welfare state policy and educational inequality: a cross-national multicohort study

Schoenholzer, Kevin; BURGER, Kaspar

2024 • In European Sociological Review

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

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https://hdl.handle.net/10993/60097

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10.1093/esr/jcae003

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Keywords :

Sociology and Political Science

Abstract :

[en] Proponents of welfare policy have argued that publicly funded early childhood education and care (ECEC), paid parental leave, and family benefits spending can weaken the influence of social background on educational outcomes by providing a supplementary source of early investment that particularly benefits disadvantaged families. We analyze whether the welfare state context in which children spend their early childhood (ages 0–5) moderates the association between parental educational attainment and the child’s educational achievement at age 10. We combine data from two large-scale international student assessments with data about welfare state policies. Results from multilevel models show that countries with higher public ECEC spending and higher family benefits spending exhibited a weaker association between parental education and student math achievement. Countries with longer parental leave exhibited a stronger association between parental education and student math, science, and reading achievement. Findings provide evidence of the mixed role of welfare state policies for social inequality in student achievement.

Disciplines :

Sociology & social sciences

Author, co-author :

Schoenholzer, Kevin ; Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich , 8050 Zurich , Switzerland

BURGER, Kaspar ; University of Luxembourg ; Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich , 8050 Zurich , Switzerland ; Social Research Institute, Institute of Education, University College London , 55-59 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0AL , United Kingdom

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Welfare state policy and educational inequality: a cross-national multicohort study

Publication date :

01 February 2024

Journal title :

European Sociological Review

ISSN :

0266-7215

eISSN :

1468-2672

Publisher :

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://academic.oup.com/esr/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/esr/jcae003/56533994/jcae003.pdf

Funders :

Swiss National Science Foundation

Available on ORBilu :

since 02 February 2024

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